Ohio Issues RFP for Collection of Old Debt

 
The state of Ohio this month released a new Request For Proposals for collections on older accounts following its release earlier this year of an RFP for collection contracts on current delinquent accounts.

Attorney General Mark Dann issued a Request for Proposal for collection services to “address older, previously worked, highly distressed, and near uncollectible debt,” according to a spokesperson in the AG’s collections enforcement division.

The distressed debt receivables for the RFP have had a number of collection attempts spread across many years. They have been worked in-house by the attorney general and have been assigned to external vendors and attorneys.

The office will be looking for “two or three” qualified bidders, according to a spokesperson in the Collections Enforcement division of the attorney general’s office.

The RFP was made public on August 10 and is available at http://www.ag.state.oh.us/business/CE_RFP/default.asp. According to the timeline listed in the RFP, a mandatory pre-proposal conference will be held for on October 17 in Columbus, Ohio. The deadline for written conference questions is September 10 and the Collections Enforcement division expects to award contracts to qualified bidders on December 3.

The new RFP comes on the heels of another successful one issued earlier this summer.

In June, Dann released an RFP for collections on a portfolio comprised of debt pools that were classified as "current delinquent debt" in types as varied as healthcare, delinquent taxes, university debt, workers’ compensation, and other types of delinquencies. Although the attorney general’s office declined to give the value of the older portfolio and the current debts, a spokesperson told insideARM.com in June that the total debt portfolio for Ohio is "several billions of dollars." 

The RFP process for the June RFP also involved a mandatory conference in Columbus that was held on August 10. The conference was attended by representatives of more than 40 interested collection agencies. The attendee list was a virtual “who’s who” of nationally recognized agencies in addition to firms specializing in both government and Ohio collections.

The contract process for the June RFP is ongoing and no contracts have been awarded as of yet.